• 26 •
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This can't be happening again. Minho is trapped at the Maze with Alby and Thomas. Thomas, who broke their rules and decided to run to help the Keeper. Zelia thinks it's either he's dumb or he just really wants to help them. Overall, he's a stupid shank.
Zelia took a deep breath and turned her back to the closed door of the Maze. She noticed that all the Gladers were looking at her, but she didn't look at them.
"Let's see what will happen tomorrow," the girl said and walked to her room. She didn't want to admit it, but she was afraid of what would happen tomorrow. Maybe Minho is just lucky that he was still alive when he decided to stay for a week inside the Maze.
She wasn't blind enough not to notice that the Glade was changing. First is Ben, who was stung in the middle of the day, then next is Alby. She didn't know what it meant, but she was sure it wasn't a good sign for all of them.
When she got to the room, she immediately laid down on her bed. She never thought anything would change inside the Glade. I guess this is what I'm thinking—that there's a chance to change the mind of the Creators.
Zelia looked at the door when she heard a knock. She said that whoever was outside his room came in.
"Hello, Zel." The girl sat on the bed when she saw Chuck. She tapped the bed beside her to sit with him, and he did.
"What's up, buddy?" she asked even though she knows the reason why he's here.
"For sure, they're alive. Minho is in there; they won't let them be killed by the Grievers." Zelia gave her a short smile because of what Chuck said to her. He's really innocent. Why is he in the Glade in the first place? He doesn't deserve all of this.
"Do you mind telling me what you and Thomas are talking about? You seem too close. You've obviously found a new friend." The girl changed the topic. She was thankful that Chuck didn't notice it, and she saw in his eyes how happy he was to talk about Thomas.
"Well, even though he has a lot of questions, I can say he's really my friend now. He listens to my stories, and sometimes he asks who I'm closest to here before we sleep, and I said you and Minho. I told a story that the Gladers call us little family. He's pretty fun to talk with, actually. Except the fact that he told me several times that he wanted to be a Runner."
Zelia laughed softly and ruffled his curly hair. She really likes him because of his cute attitude, bubbly, friendly, being talkative, everything about him.
"At least the Greenie has a new friend." Chuck smiled because of what the girl said.
"Yeah, except you and Minho, I like him."
"You really won't forget us?" Zelia laughed even more when she saw Chuck nod slowly. Before she could stop herself, she suddenly hugged the boy. "You are really cute, you know that?"
"Not sorry for that." They both laughed at what Chuck said, and they stayed like that for a few minutes before Zelia decided they needed to leave her room to eat their dinner.
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"Just a few more minutes..." Zelia said when she heard a series of loud knocks on her bedroom door. She let out a groan when it still didn't go away, so she had no choice but to stand up and open the door to whoever was outside.
"Zelia, you're up! Let's go! We have to wait for the door to open." Before the girl could speak, she felt Chuck pull her by the hand to get her out of her room, and they went into the still-closed Maze.
She didn't do anything and just let the boy do what he wanted to do. It's too early to argue with this kid. She didn't even know if she was wearing shoes. She just wants to sleep again.
Zelia yawned, and she could hear Chuck talking, but she didn't understand anything he was saying.
"You look like a mess." She almost jumped when someone suddenly spoke next to her, and she saw who it was.
"Who wouldn't when someone disturbs my deep sleep?" Zelia said to Newt. She saw her friends behind him still yawning; obviously they also wanted to know what was waiting for them once the door opened.
"I know, too obvious. You don't have any shoes on." She rubbed her face; she didn't know if she felt embarrassment or frustration.
"Don't mind it, please," Zelia said, and the Gladers were slowly approaching them. It was as if the young woman was awakened to reality because of what she saw. In an instant, her sleepiness disappeared. She didn't even know how it happened.
"For sure, they're alive, also waiting for the door to open." Only Chuck could be heard talking right now, trying his best to lighten their mood.
Since it was too early to open the door, almost everyone was sitting on the grass, as well as Zelia's friends aside from her and, of course, Chuck, still talking about the three who were trapped in the Maze.
Zelia said to her friends that she was going back to her room to put on her shoes. She can already feel how much the grass itches on her feet. Her friends agreed, and she ran back to the room.
She patted her feet to get rid of the dirt before putting on her shoes. She was about to stand up when she suddenly felt a headache, so she grabbed her forehead. What the?
Zelia suddenly covered her ears when she suddenly heard a noise that she didn't know where it was coming from. At first, she didn't understand the words she was hearing.
Remember, WICKED is good.
Zelia hears a sentence over and over like a broken record. It hurts so much for her, as if it wanted to be implanted in her brain, and she had to remember it as if the words were important.
She didn't know where the voice she heard came from. She wanted to scream to somehow make it go away, but it felt like something was blocking her throat, making her unable to speak. Before she knew it, she was suddenly surrounded by darkness.
-----
Zelia doesn't know where she is right now. But she felt the place was familiar. She was now in the living room, where a girl and a boy were sitting on the floor playing with their toys, and a woman and a man were sitting on the couch watching the news on TV.
"I hope the Flare doesn't reach our area. Poor children if they just disappear because that person made a virus accidentally." A man says that Zelia thinks it's a father.
"For sure the government will make sure that we are safe, or even for the children," a woman said, and it was a mother of children.
"You have a point, honey. I hope this is not the end of our world," The Dad said. The mother just nodded, and they both looked at the children who were laughing while playing.
Suddenly, what was in front of the girl changed, and she ended up in a park still with the four people she saw in the living room. The two children were running everywhere, while the two adults were just sitting on the bench watching the children.
It is obvious to the children that they are happy, not knowing what is happening around the world. So innocent that they don't think about anyone else but themselves.
"When do we tell them?" The father asked with sadness evident in his voice.
"I honestly don't know. I'm afraid of their reaction," the mother said as her tears began to well up. The father took a deep breath and let himself be silent.
Suddenly, what Zelia saw in front of her changed again. She is now in a room while the mother hugs her two children; they are both crying.
"Why does Daddy have to transform into a monster? Does he not love us anymore?" A girl asked, so her mother stroked her back to settle down.
"Of course not, baby. He loves us; that's why he needs to leave us. He just wants to see us safe so we don't become monsters," the mother said while still trying to calm her children down.
"We don't want you to become a monster too, Mom. Don't leave us, please," said a boy. Their mother didn't say a word and just hugged her children tighter and let herself cry with her child.
Zelia immediately opened her eyes and coughed several times. She doesn't know what her dreams are—maybe her past memories. Flare? What the hell is that?
Her eyes wandered, and she noticed that she was still in her room. She slowly sat on her bed and tried to remember what happened before she passed out.
"WICKED is good," Zelia whispered to herself, and she looked at the door when it suddenly opened and Minho and Newt entered. They immediately approached the girl when they saw that she was awake.
"Thank goodness you're awake. You've been bloody out for almost 16 hours. What happened to you?" Zelia frowned, unable to believe what the young man said. 16 hours?! And wait, did I say Minho?
She immediately looked at the man sitting in front of her on her bed as he just looked at her, waiting for what she would say.
"You're here." Zelia saw how he smiled.
"Thanks for noticing." They both heard someone clear his throat; that's why they both looked at Newt, who was still standing by Minho's side.
"Yeah, right. Don't mind me, I'm invisible here." It was obvious in his voice that it was mixed with sarcasm, so she rubbed the back of her neck.
"Honestly, I don't know. After I wore my shoes, I was about to stand up when I suddenly heard a noise. It was so loud to the point that it hurt my head. And then I blacked out. Then suddenly I had a dream, but it feels like a part of my past memories, I don't know. It doesn't make sense. Something else was said about Flare," Zelia explained. She did not expect that the two would believe her, though.
"Noise? What do you mean by that?" Minho was the first to speak as they suddenly fell silent for a few minutes.
"Wait, before I passed out, I heard something," Zelia said, and Minho and Newt looked at each other, but the girl ignored it, too focused on what she heard before. "Remember, WICKED is good."
"What the bloody hell does that mean?" Newt asked, but the girl just shrugged.
"What happened when I'm out?" Minho and Newt stared at each other again as if something bad had happened while Zelia was sleeping. Minho took a deep breath and looked into the girl's eyes.
"Newt decides to let Thomas sleep one night at the Slammers, and he makes him a Runner since he killed a Griever." He takes a pause for a moment as if he is struggling with what to say next. "While Alby is alive, we inject something on him. It's like a liquid medicine, maybe a serum, we don't know. Brought by a new Greenie."
Zelia frowned. "Greenie?"
"You heard it right. During our Gathering session about what we are going to do with Thomas, the Box suddenly alarm, so we all wondered why the Creators would send another one. Shockingly, it's another girl who's holding a note,'she's's the last one, ever.'. And the Box never came down. We thought she was dead when we saw her, but, well, she's alive, and she's in the Med-hut, looking out for Alby." Zelia was even more confused by what Newt said. Thomas hasn't been here for a month; why is there a new Greenie right away?
"Take note, Gally is not a fan of this whole changing. He really blames Thomas for what's happening in the Glade," Newt added. "I'll leave you two. I was just looking at you, Zel, to see if you were awake. It was hard to calm down your boyfriend earlier," he said while smiling and completely leaving Zelia's room.
Wait, boyfriend? Suddenly, the girl's cheeks warmed up at what her friend said. The young man cleared his throat to get rid of the awkwardness between the two of them since Newt left them.
"Don't mind him, I'm just really worried about you." Zelia looked at Minho, who was looking at her with worried eyes.
The girl motioned for the young man to lie down on her bed. He didn't think twice and lay down; he just let the girl use his arm as a pillow as they both faced each other.
"Tell me how you found me and what happened everything," Zelia said calmly while still looking at Minho. He took a deep breath before speaking.
While the Gladers were talking to find out more about what happened inside the Maze, Minho immediately looked around to find Zelia.
He frowned and asked Newt. "Where's Zelia?"
"She's in her room. Maybe she fell asleep because Chuck woke her up early. She said she was just going to put on her shoes but didn't go out." His friend said as he looked at him, as if waiting for him to ask about her. "Go, wake her up. We have a Gathering."
Minho just nodded and immediately went to the girl's room. It didn't take long for him to be here outside. He knocked several times, but no one answered.
"Zelia? I'm going to open the door, okay?" The young man said, and when he didn't hear anything again, he opened the door.
"What the..." Minho quickly went inside when he saw Zelia lying on the floor unconscious.
"No, no, no. Please, Zelia..." He muttered and he gradually felt nervous, so he immediately looked for her pulse.
Somehow he breathed a sigh of relief because she was still breathing. The young man immediately lifted the girl in his arms before leaving the room to call Newt and the Med-jacks.
"Newt! Clint! Jeff! Help!" Because they heard the scream, all the Gladers came out of the Homestead to find out what was going on.
They all saw Minho running as he held an unconscious Zelia. Newt told Minho to take Zelia to the Med-hut, and Clint and Jeff followed them. He also told the Gladers that no one would leave the Homestead before he went to the Med-hut.
"What happened?" Newt immediately asked when he got here. He noticed how Minho was walking back and forth in his place, obviously nervous for the girl.
"I....I don't know. I just saw her laying down on the floor. Unconscious," Minho said. As time went on, he became more and more nervous as he waited for what Jeff and Clint had to say.
He won't be fine if he loses Zelia too. A lot of things are happening right now; he can't take it if she also disappears from his life.
Minho stopped what he was doing when he saw the two Med-jacks stand up straight. "What happened to her? Is she going to be okay?"
Clint and Jeff stared at each other before taking a deep breath. "We didn't see anything to cause her to be unconscious. There are also no wounds to identify if she feels any pain. There's no sign if she has a fever." Jeff spoke.
Minho frowned. "What do you mean by that? She's clearly not okay. She won't just pass out without any reasons!" Even the young man was surprised when his voice suddenly rose.
"Minho, we really did our best. The two of us—"
"No! Check on her again! You're the Med-jacks; you should know how she passed out!" Minho doesn't know why he's angry with the Med-jacks. He's aware they're telling the truth, but he can't calm down because the conversation is about Zelia; he needs to know what happened.
The young man felt someone tap on his shoulder, so he looked at him. "What do-" He didn't finish what he was going to say when he felt Newt slap him.
"You're welcome," he said, looking at the two Med-jacks. "Sorry for that. Just tell me if you want me to put this guy at the Slammers."
"No, it's fine. We can't really blame him," Clint said, obviously still processing what Newt did to Minho, who was now quiet next to him, who's now calm.
Newt faced the young man. "If Alby is the one who saw how you shout at them, he definitely does that."
Minho slowly nodded and looked at the two Med-jacks. "I'm sorry. I didn't really mean to shout at you. I know you're just doing your job."
"It's all good, man. Let's just wait for her to wake up. Maybe she just lacked sleep, and especially she woke up early," Jeff said, and he smiled at Minho. He felt Newt pat him on the back.
"Let these two take a rest; we need to start our Gathering," he said and completely walked out of the Med-hut while the three men just followed him.
I just wish, after this, everything would be okay.
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